xen: Some pmu and profiling hypercalls log without rate limiting on x86
Published Oct 30, 2015
2.1
LOWCVSS 2.0
EPSS 0.43%
Description
Xen 3.2.x through 4.6.x does not limit the number of printk console messages when logging certain pmu and profiling hypercalls, which allows local guests to cause a denial of service via a sequence of crafted (1) HYPERCALL_xenoprof_op hypercalls, which are not properly handled in the do_xenoprof_op function in common/xenoprof.c, or (2) HYPERVISOR_xenpmu_op hypercalls, which are not properly handled in the do_xenpmu_op function in arch/x86/cpu/vpmu.c.
Affected products
No data.
- 3.2.0
- 3.2.1
- 3.2.2
- 3.2.3
- 3.3.0
- 3.3.1
- 3.3.2
- 3.4.0
- 3.4.1
- 3.4.2
- 3.4.3
- 3.4.4
- 4.0.0
- 4.0.1
- 4.0.2
- 4.0.3
- 4.0.4
- 4.1.0
- 4.1.1
- 4.1.2
- 4.1.3
- 4.1.4
- 4.1.5
- 4.1.6.1
- 4.2.0
- 4.2.1
- 4.2.2
- 4.2.3
- 4.3.0
- 4.3.1
- 4.3.2
- 4.3.4
- 4.4.0
- 4.4.1
- 4.5.0
- 4.5.1
- 4.6.0
No data.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5
xen
Will not fix
| Product | Package | State | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 | xen | Will not fix | n/a |
No package ranges for this CVE.
Remediation
Red Hat mitigation
The problematic log messages are issued with priority Warning. Therefore they can be rate limited by adding "loglvl=error/warning" to the hypervisor command line or suppressed entirely by adding "loglvl=error". On systems where the guest kernel is controlled by the host rather than guest administrator, running only kernels which do not call these hypercalls will also prevent untrusted guest users from exploiting this issue. However untrusted guest administrators can still trigger it unless further steps are taken to prevent them from loading code into the kernel (e.g. by disabling loadable modules etc) or from using other mechanisms which allow them to run code at kernel privilege.
Metrics
No CVSS v4.0 score for this CVE.
No CVSS v3.1 score for this CVE.
No CVSS v3.0 score for this CVE.
AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P
This CVE is not in the KEV list.
No CISA SSVC assessment for this CVE yet.
Estimated probability of exploitation in the wild in the next 30 days (FIRST EPSS). As of Oct 1, 2026.
Score over time
2022–2026- EPSS v2
- EPSS v3
- EPSS v4
- EPSS v5
Percentile over time
- EPSS v2
- EPSS v3
- EPSS v4
- EPSS v5
Table of values (10 key points)
Flat stretches are collapsed; showing up to 120 newest points.
| Date | Score | Percentile | Model |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 1, 2026 | 0.43% (0.00426) | 34.52th | v5 (v2026.06.15) |
| Jun 15, 2026 | 0.43% (0.00426) | 33.78th | v5 (v2026.06.15) |
| Mar 17, 2025 | 0.09% (0.00092) | 23.90th | v4 (v2025.03.14) |
| Dec 12, 2024 | 0.06% (0.00062) | 28.60th | v3 (v2023.03.01) |
| Jun 13, 2024 | 0.06% (0.00062) | 26.61th | v3 (v2023.03.01) |
| Mar 7, 2023 | 0.06% (0.00062) | 24.59th | v3 (v2023.03.01) |
| Mar 6, 2023 | 1.28% (0.01282) | 68.34th | v2 (v2022.01.01) |
| Feb 22, 2023 | 1.28% (0.01282) | 68.05th | v2 (v2022.01.01) |
| Apr 1, 2022 | 1.28% (0.01282) | 65.91th | v2 (v2022.01.01) |
| Feb 4, 2022 | 1.28% (0.01282) | 41.72th | v2 (v2022.01.01) |
References (14)
- http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/package-announce/2015-November/171082.html vendor-advisoryx_refsource_FEDORA
- http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/package-announce/2015-November/171185.html vendor-advisoryx_refsource_FEDORA
- http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/package-announce/2015-November/171249.html vendor-advisoryx_refsource_FEDORA
- http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-updates/2015-11/msg00063.html vendor-advisoryx_refsource_SUSE
- http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX202404 x_refsource_CONFIRM
- http://www.debian.org/security/2015/dsa-3414 vendor-advisoryx_refsource_DEBIAN
- http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/77363 vdb-entryx_refsource_BID
- http://www.securitytracker.com/id/1034035 vdb-entryx_refsource_SECTRACK
- http://xenbits.xen.org/xsa/advisory-152.html x_refsource_CONFIRMVendor Advisory
- https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2015-7971 Vendor Advisory
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1272525 Issue Tracking
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2015-7971
- https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201604-03 vendor-advisoryx_refsource_GENTOO
- https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2015-7971
Change history (0)
No recorded changes yet.